“Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an unperson.”

Least Marketable Skill actually pretty marketable

If you’re not familiar with Batting Stance Guy (aka Gar Ryness), this is a pretty good primer. (You can see his YouTube channel here.) He mimics/caricatures the batting stances of major league ballplayers the way all kids do, except he still does it.

After YouTube sensationdom and an appearance on Letterman (unembeddable), he has now signed a deal with Fox Sports Net to appear in a series of ads and other promotional material, in spite of his motto “the Least Marketable Skill in America.” He has gained quite some following within major league clubhouses, and he is as close to a complete true fan of the game as you can get. How many hours of devotion did this guy have to put in?

In any case, this is either a sign of the love of one man for baseball or a deluded childhood obsession encouraged by an increasingly infantile and debauched society. You know where I stand.